Landlords' experiences of housing tenants suffering from severe mental illness: a Swedish empirical study

Abstract

The aim of this Swedish study was to describe landlords' experiences of having tenants suffering from severe mental illness. Sixteen landlords working in private and public housing agencies participated in open in-depth interviews. Data were subjected to a thematic latent content analysis. The results showed that having tenants with severe mental illness entails being confronted with various difficult circumstances, ranging from mismanagement of apartments to sensitivity among neighbours as well as issues regarding provocative behaviour. It involved providing assistance that was far beyond their professional obligations and to be neglected by the community-based psychiatric service system when in need of help. In order to support landlords and to prevent evictions of individuals with severe mental illness, community-based psychiatric services need to be more pro-active in their attempts to achieve collaboration with the parties at hand.